looking to switch to Cubase

Cubase
1

Hello,

New to the board. I am considering switching from Reaper to another DAW - mostly because I’ve never warmed up to Reaper’s workflow. Prior to this I was using Garageband (yes, yes, I know, not exactly a pro DAW) and would have been fine were it not for its inability to do mixed meter songs or export midi easily to share with band mates.
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This brings me to Cubase. I don’t really do full blown recording - more scratching ideas - maybe 4-8 guitar tracks, a couple of vocal tracks, ezdrummer, and about a half dozen vsts that I use. Was wondering if it’d really be worth it to go with something like Artist or if Essentials would be more than sufficient. One other want list item is being able to share session files with a collaborator who uses the full blown Cubase. Kind of thinking that if I can write in Essentials with my normal tools ( then that’s about all I need.

Thoughts between Artist and Essentials?

Thanks!

2

Kinda hard to answer without fully understanding what specific items fall on your “need to have” vs. “nice to have” lists. Check out this comparison chart and focus on what is in Artist but not in Elements and ask yourself how badly you need that specific function. But from your description it sounds like Essentials could well do the trick. You can always upgrade later.

In general Cubase is a great environment for writing and sketching out music.